A GOOD AGE: Personal crisis doesn't slow down doctor

At age 62, Dr. David Rudolph, a prominent ear, nose and throat surgeon, developed a viral inner ear infection that took away his balance and hearing in one ear. He could no longer do surgery or examine patients and had to give up his practice. He's now the medical director of ...

By Sue Scheible

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Sue Scheible

Posted May. 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 14, 2013 at 2:21 PM

By Sue Scheible

Posted May. 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 14, 2013 at 2:21 PM

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I think of it as one of life’s cruel ironies. At age 62, Dr. David Rudolph, a prominent ear, nose and throat surgeon, developed a viral inner ear infection that took away his balance and hearing in one ear.

“I thought it would subside, as I had seen it do in many patients, but the damage was done,” Rudolph, now 69, said. He could no longer do surgery or examine patients and had to give up his practice. He became director of strategic development at South Shore Hospital, an administrative job he still holds.

Rudolph, who lives in Hingham, met the personal crisis with courage and the ability to adapt and help others.

“It was a major adjustment because that was the way I had set my life up and was everything I was doing,” he said. “Fortunately I had these other interests that picked up at that time.”

An avid cyclist, he switched from a road to a mountain bike, easier for balance. He continued volunteering for the Constanza Medical Mission, a nonprofit group that delivers both basic and life-saving medical care to people in remote villages of the mountains of the Dominican Republic.

On Saturday, he will lead a team of 26 people on a weeklong mission to the Caribbean island. It will be his fifth year on the island, where people are in desperate need of the most basic medical care. The Constanza team will treat 900 people, from babies to elders, and return to start planning for the next trip in November.

“This experience has been just amazing,” Rudolph said. “The joy of the people and the good that we do there. You see things you just can’t imagine and at the end of the day, we really are helping them. The mountains are absolutely beautiful and the people are just wonderful.”

He is known for his energy and stamina, climbing mountain roads each day, proof that “it is not a matter of age, but how you feel.” A native of South Africa, he just returned from visiting his father, who is 96 and doing well in Johannesburg. Fit and muscular, with an infectious enthusiasm, Rudolph works with a cadre of Constanza volunteers, who can be difficult to recruit but unstoppable once on board.

“The difference it makes to the people who come with us is one of the keys,” he said. “The letters and comments I receive thanking us for taking them – it changes their entire concept of life in this country and makes their entire life different.”

The medical teams include doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and lay people from high school age to retirees. They donate $1,000 to $1,200 to cover their expenses, including air fare.

Page 2 of 2 - Working long hours under difficult conditions, they provide the most basic health care, for both illnesses and injuries, and have treated whole families for congenital conditions, including blindness and peripheral dystrophy. “You see things you just can’t imagine,” he said.

With Rotary International and local Rotary groups, the mission has started a water-purification project, addressing the root causes of the illnesses they treat. A project to grow more nutritious food is next.

Rudolph, with the full support of his wife, has no plans to scale back.

“This country and my specialty has been extremely good to me,” he said. “I have exceeded all expectations I have of myself. But I don’t have the feeling it’s time to slow down. In fact, it’s time to speed up.

For this next trip, he is taking one of his sons, Greg, a proctor at Harvard who has developed his own project of bringing handicapped kids into nature.